


Incentive

by cosmic_llin



Category: Doctor Who, Mary Poppins - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairing, F/M, Pre-Canon, Teacher-Student Relationship, Teaching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-15
Updated: 2009-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-14 20:19:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/153077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young Time Lord really needs to pass his exams this time. His tutor finds a way to motivate him to study.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Incentive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ladyvivien](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyvivien/gifts).



The young Time Lord sighed. Well - not even a Time Lord yet, not really. Not until he could pass his sodding exams. He'd failed miserably the first time. 

  
No attention span, his teachers had said. No respect for authority. Couldn't learn to apply appropriate methodology. Too disorganised. Too anarchic. Too much time spend wandering about the place with his head in the clouds, instead of sitting in his study with his nose in his books.

  
Oh, lots of potential, they all said. Plenty of potential. If only he could apply himself.

  
It was lucky, really, that they were letting him retake the exams. Not one in a hundred students were allowed to do that. He supposed he should be grateful. He supposed he should try a bit harder. That was surely best.

  
'Don't you ever want to give up, steal a TARDIS and just run off?' he asked her, one evening.

  
Her eyes widened. 'Certainly not! I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that.'

  
She was so bloody prim. He hated her. Except that he didn't.

  
'Now, where were we?' she said. 'I think we were on that temporal mechanics chapter that we didn't get through last week?'

  
'Yes...' he grumbled.

  
'Look, I am trying to help you,' she said. 'You might at least sit up straight and pay attention. And take that sulky expression off your face.'

 

It really wasn't fair. It was bad enough that the Academy administration had seen fit to arrange a tutor to help him pass him final exams this time around. It was worse that she was a fellow student - and not even a final year, at that! And her condescending manner was just the last straw. But she had a pretty nose.

 

'Are you ready?' she asked.

 

'As I'll ever be,' he shrugged.

 

'I don't think you're very interested in this, are you?' she asked.

 

He just shrugged again.

 

'Would an incentive help?' she asked.

 

He perked up. 'What?'

 

'An incentive. You know. Something which induces action or motivates effort.'

 

He sighed exaggeratedly. 'Yes, but what would the incentive be?'

 

She stood up, so that he could look at her outfit. It was prim and proper, like her. It was a sort of shapeless robe thing, with buttons all the way down, starting right at her neck and ending at her feet. It was the sort of garment that left everything to the imagination. Luckily, imagination was something that he had in abundance.

 

When she was sure that he was watching, she undid the top button, exposing just the tiniest glimpse of flesh, where neck and shoulder met.

 

'I'll quiz you,' she said. 'One correct answer, one button. All right?'

 

He swallowed. 'Are you trying to seduce me?'

 

'Well, yes. But you have to answer the questions first.'

 

He squeaked. 'All right...'

 

 

A few months later, he was finally graduating. Finally a Time Lord. He saw her in the crowd at the ceremony, but she wasn't looking at him. 

  
It had helped a lot, in the end. He could have done rather well. But she had promised him that, if he failed again, she would tutor him until he passed.

  
He had been racked with indecision in the exam. He had tried to calculate exactly how many marks he could get away with losing. He had been going for 49% - enough that they would let him try again, but not quite enough to pass.

  
He had come out with 51%. It was probably for the best. Still, he couldn't help missing his special study sessions.

 

  
Perhaps he could do a post-grad?


End file.
